Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK
Background: Urbanization is characterized by high levels of sealed land-cover, and small, geometrically complex, fragmented land-use patches. The extent and density of urbanized land-use is increasing, with implications for habitat quality, connectivity and city ecology. Little is known about densif...
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ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.272.3127 2023-05-15T17:59:55+02:00 Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK James D. Hale Alison J. Fairbrass Tom J. Matthews Jon P. Sadler The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives application/zip http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.272.3127 en eng http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.272.3127 Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/1d/fe/PLoS_One_2012_Mar_12_7(3)_e33300.tar.gz text ftciteseerx 2016-01-07T20:41:59Z Background: Urbanization is characterized by high levels of sealed land-cover, and small, geometrically complex, fragmented land-use patches. The extent and density of urbanized land-use is increasing, with implications for habitat quality, connectivity and city ecology. Little is known about densification thresholds for urban ecosystem function, and the response of mammals, nocturnal and cryptic taxa are poorly studied in this respect. Bats (Chiroptera) are sensitive to changing urban form at a species, guild and community level, so are ideal model organisms for analyses of this nature. Methodology/Principal Findings: We surveyed bats around urban ponds in the West Midlands conurbation, United Kingdom (UK). Sites were stratified between five urban land classes, representing a gradient of built land-cover at the 1 km 2 scale. Models for bat presence and activity were developed using land-cover and land-use data from multiple radii around each pond. Structural connectivity of tree networks was used as an indicator of the functional connectivity between habitats. All species were sensitive to measures of urban density. Some were also sensitive to landscape composition and structural connectivity at different spatial scales. These results represent new findings for an urban area. The activity of Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber 1774) exhibited a non-linear relationship with the area of built land-cover, being much reduced beyond the threshold of,60 % built surface. The presence of tree networks appears to mitigate the negative effects of urbanization for this species. Text Pipistrellus pipistrellus Unknown |
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Open Polar |
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Unknown |
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ftciteseerx |
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English |
description |
Background: Urbanization is characterized by high levels of sealed land-cover, and small, geometrically complex, fragmented land-use patches. The extent and density of urbanized land-use is increasing, with implications for habitat quality, connectivity and city ecology. Little is known about densification thresholds for urban ecosystem function, and the response of mammals, nocturnal and cryptic taxa are poorly studied in this respect. Bats (Chiroptera) are sensitive to changing urban form at a species, guild and community level, so are ideal model organisms for analyses of this nature. Methodology/Principal Findings: We surveyed bats around urban ponds in the West Midlands conurbation, United Kingdom (UK). Sites were stratified between five urban land classes, representing a gradient of built land-cover at the 1 km 2 scale. Models for bat presence and activity were developed using land-cover and land-use data from multiple radii around each pond. Structural connectivity of tree networks was used as an indicator of the functional connectivity between habitats. All species were sensitive to measures of urban density. Some were also sensitive to landscape composition and structural connectivity at different spatial scales. These results represent new findings for an urban area. The activity of Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber 1774) exhibited a non-linear relationship with the area of built land-cover, being much reduced beyond the threshold of,60 % built surface. The presence of tree networks appears to mitigate the negative effects of urbanization for this species. |
author2 |
The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
format |
Text |
author |
James D. Hale Alison J. Fairbrass Tom J. Matthews Jon P. Sadler |
spellingShingle |
James D. Hale Alison J. Fairbrass Tom J. Matthews Jon P. Sadler Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK |
author_facet |
James D. Hale Alison J. Fairbrass Tom J. Matthews Jon P. Sadler |
author_sort |
James D. Hale |
title |
Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK |
title_short |
Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK |
title_full |
Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK |
title_fullStr |
Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK |
title_full_unstemmed |
Habitat Composition and Connectivity Predicts Bat Presence and Activity at Foraging Sites in a Large UK |
title_sort |
habitat composition and connectivity predicts bat presence and activity at foraging sites in a large uk |
url |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.272.3127 |
genre |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
genre_facet |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
op_source |
ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/1d/fe/PLoS_One_2012_Mar_12_7(3)_e33300.tar.gz |
op_relation |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.272.3127 |
op_rights |
Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
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1766168808262729728 |